Welcome to my coffee shop in the cyber neighborhood!

Welcome to my cyber neighborhood coffee shop! Grab a mug of your favorite beverage and a cozy chair to read and comment a bit. Be sure to try a piece of black forest cake or the tiramisu. Try both; cyber-cake is calorie free!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

How Is Wife 1500 Going?

First, I did NOT go have my small Shamrock Shake yesterday and I ended the day having to eat four pretzels to get to my minimum calories count. I had more than enough left for the shake. I still want to get my shake before they’re gone until next year. Maybe this weekend. I found flounder fillets at Kroger, regular $9 bag for $2.99! That was dinner, so there were definitely calories left over yesterday. Great dinner though!

This is a bit of an update on the Wife 1500 project. I’m doing well so far with keeping between my numbers. Usually, I can stay between 1000 and 1200, but the 1500 number is in place so I can occasionally have McBreakfast when David and I are railfanning or ice cream/cake for dessert. My honey loves his desserts but he usually doesn’t want to have ice cream without me, so I structured my diet in a way that allows me to enjoy evening dessert with him. I don’t consider that splurging. That’s making sure my diet doesn’t make David crazy. That would be another sure way to have an excuse for not being disciplined. I have to look out for myself too. After all, I’m doing this for me!

Recently, bless him, we found out that we both like Jello. Strangest thing for that to be such a big deal, but especially after a heavier meal, like beef or pasta, it’s a nice light dessert and while a bowl of ice cream is 150-250 calories, a bowl of Jello is 80! It’s the perfect companion for our nightly Yahtzee challenge!

Also HUGE thanks and shout-out to Skinny and the City! Joining that mailing list was just awesome for me!! I’ve gotten some great tips and recipes that I’ve added to my cooking routine. I also got a link to Kernel Season's Popcorn that changed my way of crunchy snacking for the WAY better!

I air-pop my popcorn, 120 calories for five cups! Then I spray it with popcorn spritzer, which by the way is butter flavored cooking spray with a little salt, and sprinkle on the flavor topping. Skinny and the City had a coupon code in their email newsletter that offered a free bag of popcorn and a free full-size popcorn spritzer with any order. I bought two shakers of flavor, caramel and garlic Parmesan, and my freebie was worth as much as my purchase, it was essentially all you see in the photo for half price. Did I mention that the newsletter was free? I’m loving my morning coffee read!

By the way, you can’t just buy microwave popcorn to do this. Lots of fat for cooking it, even the light varieties. It must be air-popped. It gives great flavor and no fat with the spritzer and shakers. An air-popper is about $20 anywhere you buy Kitchen appliances, but you CAN still air-pop in the microwave too. Get a standard lunch-size paper bag. Put 2 tablespoons of kernels in the bag and fold it tight on the top. Put it in the microwave for 2-4 minutes. Times vary per microwave, but you don’t want to leave the popcorn unattended at first anyway, until you are sure of the time. Nothing is nastier than the smell of over-nuked popcorn! Just let it go until it stops popping, same as regular microwave popcorn. Now you can put it in a bowl, spritz, flavor and mix, or you can just spritz and flavor in the bag and shake!

I did this for a while, but I realized that I was making popcorn almost every day anyway and I was running out of paper bags! So I picked up my air popper at Meijer. I think it was $22. So now I have my popper, bag of popcorn, butter flavored spray and 3 shakers. I picked up Kernel Season's’s kettle corn at Meijer when I got the popper and new bag of popcorn.

Another Nani-testimonial! I tried Kahiki egg rolls. It was a link from an email, maybe that was Skinny and the City too, but don’t quote me on that one. I went to the Kahiki home page because while the egg rolls look good and only 70 calories each, I can’t have them if there is MSG. Nasty reaction MSG gives if you ingest it when you’re allergic! Well, NO MSG in the egg rolls! They have veggie, shrimp and chicken. I’ve tried the chicken too and they are very good for only 10 more calories, but I LOVE the veggie ones!

I downloaded the $1.50 off two coupon from their website to try them. I couldn’t find them at the nearest grocer to me, but they had them at Meijer, where David prefers to get his steaks anyway, so that’s convenient for me! The egg rolls cook in the microwave in their crisp pouches in 2 minutes, 4 if you’re cooking 2. They are full-size tasty egg rolls and only 70 calories! Plus, bonus time, I cut a coupon off the box for 55 cents off my next box. At this rate, they’ll never be full price either!

So this is all great, but am I getting results?

Yes.

I can already see it in my face. I like my face as it is just fine, so of course, it’s the first place it starts to show if I lose a little weight. That’s probably where my fear of losing too fast is. I’ve seen people who lose a lot really fast that have a gaunt corpseish look for a couple years after weight-loss. I always struggle with the polite “oh, you look GREAT” and the honest “don’t worry, your face will fill back out and you’ll look good again.” So of course, the first place it starts to show to me is my face gets thinner. I’ve talked to other women who’ve complained that the first place they lose is the bust. I wish! Murphy’s law of dieting is that you’ll show loss first in the last place you think you need to lose. In a Biblical sense, Murphy is Satan tempting you towards gluttony for the sake of vanity! I won’t give in, but I still want to figure out how to lose in the bust.

We don’t have a scale in the house, and truth is, I don’t want one. Actual weight fluctuates with time of day and the results of exercise too. Muscle weights more than fat. An occasional weigh-in at the doctor’s office or even at a friend's house is sufficient. I can tell by clothes that are already fitting a little better and “hey, that roll used to hit my elbow when I relax my arms.” Everyone who has ever struggled with weight KNOWS what I mean by that! You see, if I can’t keep looking at a number on a scale, I don’t KNOW that it’s a good time to “take a break.” As long as I can see it and feel it in the mirror and my closet, I’m good and satisfied that the plan is working!

Of course some people need the scale for encouragement. That’s cool too. I truly believe that what works for you is the right way to do it. If I lose enough by the end of my first married year to be worth writing a book, it won’t be the Nani Diet, but the Nani Diet Motivational Inspiration book. Of course, you all will have read it in The Chronicles of Nani for free!

So there’s the update on my quest to buck the norm and LOSE in my first year of marriage. Thanks for your support and definitely try those yummy suggestions!